One of the most impressive vintage synth collections we’ve ever seen

Emeryville, California is a strange little place nestled near the east shore of the San Francisco Bay. It sits between Oakland and Berkeley and aspiring animators might know it for being the home of Pixar. Probe past that, the Ikea, and a couple of huge biotech campuses, and you’ll find several collectives and co-working spaces that are home to all manner of makers, musicians, and artists. One such place houses the studio of Lance Hill, who has spent much of his life collecting the most desirable vintage synthesizers on the planet. He doesn’t have everything yet (What? No Elka Synthex? No RSF PolyKobol?), just most of it. Frankly, outside of the home studios of a handful of well-heeled and synth-obsessed rock stars, it’s one of the most complete and compelling collections we’ve seen in the USA. All the synths are in playable condition, and most importantly (and unlike a rock star’s studio), the place can be visited. While not exactly open to the public in a storefront sort of way, Lance regularly plays host to synth meets, jams, and pop-up stores where Eurorack module makers show their wares. In fact, “museum” is a bit of a misnomer, as it’s really more of a hub of synth community activity in the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn more, visit his website at vintagesynthmuseum.com. Enjoy the pics below!

After the Prophet 12 (reviewed Oct. ’13), it was hard to see how Dave could go much further. Enter the Pro-2. At first glance, it looks like a monophonic P12, but it’s a different beast entirely. In fact, it’s actually more powerful than the P12 in some ways. Don’t believe us? Read on.

Novation announced today that to highlight the history and legacy of their synthesizers, they will be giving away a vintage Oxford OSCar analog synth. The unit has been fully restored and serviced and is in mint, playable condition.

Just a few months after the SH-101 plug-out, Roland has delivered a virtual version of the decidedly more obscure SH-2 synth. Although I’ve never owned an SH-2, I’ve used them in the studio. While the SH-101’s slightly plastic sound has made it a workhorse in the dance music era, the SH-2 has a distinctly aggressive synth-pop vibe, more akin to Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails. It also excels at greasy funk basses, especially with the resonance up a touch.

Roland's Aira System-1 features a "plug-out" architecture that lets you create patches on your computer for such vintage synth emulations as the SH-101 and SH-2, then take the hardware to the gig and play those virtual synths with no computer hookup needed. It also has its own very capable virtual analog synth engine. We put it through its paces in this in-depth review.

Developer Bill Mitsakos is making iPad editors for a lot of synths that were from that era where knobs were ditched in favor of data entry buttons. A lot of these synths sound great and are relatively affordable, and these editors bring back the hands-on control. Here, we look at his prototype editor for the Sequential Six-Trak.

While it would’ve been easy for Roland to just kick back and release a rack-mount version of the System-1, they took careful notes on the ongoing renaissance of modular equipment and incorporated voltage control into the AIRA synthesis engine in a manner that’s both radical and evocative of their legacy as one of the original architects of modular gear. The System-1m isn’t just a rehash of what’s great about the keyboard version. It’s an entirely new ball game.

Dave Smith's new Pro 2 is a hybrid synth: digital oscillators feeding analog filters. While the first-glance impression might understandably be "monophonic Prophet 12," it's in fact a rather different animal. Read the full review by Francis Preve in our October 2014 issue. Here, keyboardist Tom Brislin digs into it for the first time.